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Your top priorities make it easier to plan and organise your life intentionally.

Living intentionally means that you deliberately decide how you want to live – and what you want to do to create the life you want.

It means that you don’t let life just happen to you and purely react to its circumstances and challenges.

Instead, you actively define what’s important to you and how you want to experience and live your life.

You are well aware of your priorities and proactively make changes that move you toward the life you want to live.

Your priorities give your life direction and guidance.

Planning your life with intention doesn’t have to be an intimidating or overwhelming exercise.

If you regularly check and update your priorities, you are well prepared to act and react confidently when faced with bigger or smaller decisions in everyday life.

Your priorities also direct and guide you when you must manage a significant life challenge:

    • A planned transition like entering retirement, becoming an empty nester, downsizing,
    • or an unexpected event like divorce, the loss of a job, a critical illness, or the death of a loved one.

How do you choose your priorities – and direct your life in the way you want it to go?

The following exercise will help you decide what you want to focus on whenever you feel it’s the right time to plan your life intentionally.

For example, at the beginning of a new year. Or when you’re going through a major life change. Or whenever you feel a bit stuck or lost.

EXERCISE:

Step 1: List the important areas/topics of your life.

Step 2: Rate on a scale from 0 to 10 how satisfied you feel about each life topic.

Step 3: For each topic that is not fully satisfying, decide how important it is to make changes now (or soon, like in the coming year, next month, etc.).

Step 4: Choose your top three priority topics.

Step 5: Define the desired changes for each and make an action plan.

Steps 7, ff: Take the first action step. And then the next. …

Example:

The person who filled in the example worksheet assigned the highest priority to topic No. 1, ‘Significant other’. She is currently single and wants to change that.

Besides this area, she has four other topics with a higher priority rating. I recommended going through these four again and picking 2 finally.

Because focusing her attention on the top 3 priorities will help her also to focus her energy and time, and her actions and activities.

This super-focus on the desired changes will help her realise them more easily and quickly.

NOW IT’S YOUR TURN!

Worksheet

You can give yourself an easy start and use the list (see above) of life areas/topics to evaluate your priorities.

DOWNLOAD THE WORKSHEET TEMPLATE HERE.

The worksheet will be useful and help you do the exercise as fast as possibleeven if some of the topics aren’t relevant to you. Or if you feel highly satisfied in many areas of your life.

->     Leave the satisfaction-level space empty for those topics that are currently not important to you. (Like in the example worksheet: topics 13 and 14.)

->    And when you go through the list again to assign priority ratings, leave the spaces for those topics that have a high satisfaction rating and currently don’t require any changes empty. (Like in the example worksheet: topics 2, 5, 11, and 17.)

Don’t walk away after filling in the worksheet!

Instead, take the next step(s):

Use what you now have – the awareness of your top 3 priorities – to define a few significant goals for the next phase of your life and create a broad action plan. And then start moving, little-step-by-little-step. Start living the life you want. 


HOW CAN I HELP YOU?

Are you tired?

Tired of trying to (re)organise the various areas of your life entirely on your own?

Tired of investing vast amounts of time and energy in finding a way to create a better organised = better life?

Tired of feeling overwhelmed, confused, frustrated, stressed, disappointed, exhausted, …?

Fortunately, you don’t have to figure it out all by yourself.

We can do it together.

You can decide to get my support, advice, and guidance – and achieve the desired changes in your life so much faster and easier. 

Check out how I can help you.

Your Paperwork Inbox – The fundation of your paperwork management system

Inboxes are a ‘natural’ basic element of all functioning organisational systems.

In all areas of our lives, we find places and containers that act as inboxes that help us get things done and efficiently organised.

(Check Article 1 and Article 2 for a quick recap.)

In this series, we focus our attention and discussion on those inboxes that help us organise critical elements of our daily life – our time, space, paperwork, projects, and tasks efficiently.


Today, I start the discussion with

The paperwork inbox.

Many organisational inboxes allow us to follow our preferences and choose a physical or a digital version.

Like for example, the inbox for our notes. We can choose a physical notebook to collect and organise our notes or use a digital note app.

It’s different with our paperwork inbox. Usually, we can’t decide to have only one paperwork inbox:

Most of us need to keep a physical and a digital inbox:

    • If you prefer to keep your paperwork management system in physical form, you will still have to manage some information digitally. You probably receive a range of important documents – like clinic reports, online shopping invoices, and investment reports – in digital form. And even if you decide to print those out, you need a place to temporarily collect/store them digitally.
    • If you decide to organise and store all your paperwork digitally, you will still need a physical box to collect important information and data that enters your home on paper. The next step is to scan and digitise the data you want to keep and transfer it directly to your digital folder (or first to your digital inbox).

The physical paperwork inbox is a fundamental form of an organisational inbox.

That’s why I chose it as the starting point for discussing the inboxes that help us organise our daily lives.

As we have seen in the second article of this series, even the simplest inboxes require consistency and reliability/commitment from our side. They can’t function properly if we don’t treat them properly.

Let me go through the three rules of efficient inboxes and apply them to the physical paperwork inbox to demonstrate what I mean.

The RULE NUMBER 1: “Everything and always!

Everything that belongs into a specific inbox must always end up in that inbox.”

You could have a functioning (although very simplistic) paperwork-organisation system even if you decided to do nothing else with your papers (no sorting, decluttering, filing, etc.) but just stuck to Rule 1. 

You are in a safe place as long as you always put every piece of paper that comes into your home in your paperwork inbox. Because you can be confident that you will always be able to find any piece of paper you need to find.

That’s good to know, I think.

Many of my paperwork-overwhelmed clients find massive relief in the idea that they actually don’t have to organise their papers if they don’t want to. They just must be committed to collecting them reliably in one place.

And yes, the idea that we must follow only one simple and easy rule to manage our paperwork is super-attractive.

However, the simplicity and ease come at a price.

These are some of the disadvantages of the ‘one inbox & one rule’ paperwork system:

    • You know exactly where all your papers are, yes, but you have no certainty about what’s precisely stored and potentially hidden under the piled documents in your box.

    • Over time, you not only accumulate vast amounts of paper, but you also pile up a lot of clutter. Because much of the information and data we receive on paper has an ‘expiry’ date, the papers that carry those data become worthless and meaningless – but continue to take up space in the paperwork inbox.

    • If you need a specific document, like your lease agreement or marriage certificate, you know you will find it in your inbox, but – depending on the age and size of the paperwork inbox – you might have to invest a lot of time to search for it.

    • You also need to invest in storage space. Sooner or later, your paperwork inbox fills up, and you need to open a second box or transfer the content of the inbox into an archive box – which then needs to go somewhere. And quickly gets ‘siblings’. This paperwork (and paper clutter) family will soon occupy large areas of your basement, attic, or garage.

You can drastically increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the one-inbox paperwork system with the help of Rule Number 2 and Rule Number 3.

Rule Number 2: “Regular check-ups!

Choose a routine (daily, weekly, monthly – whatever makes sense) for your inbox check-ups – so you always know at least broadly what’s in there.”

Rule Number 3: “Regular decisions and actions!

Make decisions, regularly, about what to do with the stuff in the inbox – and then do it.”

Combining Rule 1 with Rule 2 and Rule 3 ensures that the purely inbox-based paperwork system does what it’s supposed to do: help you organise and manage your paperwork.

The ‘Rule 1 + Rule 2 + Rule 3’ Working-Process

This is how the three rules work together:

Rule 1: You collect all incoming paperwork in the inbox.

Rules 2 and 3: You do regular check-ups and use these to make decisions about the stuff in the box. You then take, if necessary, immediate action.

The frequency of the check-ups depends on the amount of paperwork coming in and its importance. And it depends on how urgent it usually is to take action.

A weekly review is usually ideal; in some cases, a monthly check-up is sufficient.

Decisions and actions during check-ups.

At check-up time, you empty the inbox.

Then you take paper after paper up and ask yourself a series of questions – and you answer/decide and act immediately:

Question 1 – ‘Do I still need it? Really?’

    • “no” – Very often, the honest answer will be ‘no’. In this case, you decide to throw the paper away – and you do that immediately! The paper goes into the paper bin or shredder.
    • “yes” – If you decide you still need this paper, you ask the following question:

Question 2 – ‘What do I need it for? Reference or Action?’

    • “Reference’ – If you decide to keep the paper for reference purposes, it goes directly back into the inbox.
    • ‘Action” – If you decide you need to do something with this paper, you ask the following question:

Question 3 – ‘Can I get it done now?’

    • “no” – If you can’t take action immediately, you return the paper to the inbox.
    • “yes” – If the answer is ‘yes’, you do what needs to be done with the paper. – And then you ask the following question:

Question 4 – ‘Do I still need it? Really?’

    • “no” – If the paper is no longer needed, it goes in the paper bin/shredder.
    • “yes” – If you decide to keep it (for reference purposes?), you put it back in the inbox.

If you follow the three rules consistently, the paperwork inbox can act as the only or an essential part of your paperwork management system,

because it ensures that

    • you always have a clear idea about what’s currently in the inbox;
    • you don’t allow clutter to build up in the inbox – which saves you time and space;
    • you take action on any piece of paper that needs your action;
    • you still have all your paperwork in one place and know where to go when you need anything.

Conclusion:

    • It’s easy to install and maintain a well-functioning paperwork inbox. (3 clear rules and a simple check-up/decision/action process)
    • A well-functioning paperwork inbox can be the only pillar of your paperwork management system. It’s a very simplistic system, but it works – if you stick to the rules.
    • A well-functioning paperwork inbox can act as the port of entry of your paperwork management system if you want or need to organise your paperwork in a more complex and sophisticated way.
      • In this case, you follow the process described above: You collect all incoming paperwork in the inbox. You do the regular check-ups, and you ask and answer the questions listed above; you decide and act.
      • However, you don’t put anything back into the inbox!
      • Instead, you transfer reference papers to your filing system. Any actionable documents that you don’t directly act on are moved into your task management system.

I will discuss the organisation and maintenance of more specialised paperwork inboxes in future articles. 


HOW CAN I HELP YOU?

Are you tired?

Tired of trying to (re)organise the various areas of your life entirely on your own?

Tired of investing vast amounts of time and energy in finding a way to create a better organised = better life?

Tired of feeling overwhelmed, confused, frustrated, stressed, disappointed, exhausted, …?

Fortunately, you don’t have to figure it out all by yourself.

We can do it together.

You can decide to get my support, advice, and guidance – and achieve the desired changes in your life so much faster and easier. 

Check out how I can help you.

The 3 rules for a well-functioning inbox

In the first article of this series, I talked about why we need inboxes – if we want to get good at getting things done and organised.

I listed the inboxes that easily come to mind – like our email inbox, our mailbox, and the in-tray in the office.

I also came up with lots of other examples of containers or places that we use as inboxes in various daily life circumstances.  And I talked about the purpose and benefits of inboxes. 

This is a quick summary:

What are inboxes, and what’s their purpose?

Inboxes are temporary storage areas for things that need to get done/organised in the future.

These storage areas

    • offer an easy and quick way to get things out of the way,
    • ensure that individual items don’t get lost,
    • are supposed to store things temporarily,
    • make sorted-away items retrievable,
    • offer quick overviews of pending tasks,
    • help sort and prioritise items.

Today, I want to discuss what we need to do to make an inbox work. We need to follow just a few rules.

Important requirements of a well-functioning inbox.

Inboxes can only do their job – help us get things done and organised – if we do our job.

A set of rules helps us to do our job properly.

There is ONE RULE we must stick to ALL THE TIME.

It’s the absolute minimum requirement of any organisational system.

It’s also the only requirement – if you are happy with the very basic and simplistic results that a very basic and simplistic organisational system produces.

RULE NUMBER 1: Everything and always!

Everything that belongs in a specific inbox must always end up in that inbox.

Examples:

Think about your calendar. Your calendar can only reliably help you organise your time if you transfer every appointment and every otherwise time-bound commitment to it.

Or consider your paperwork inbox (which I will discuss in more detail in the next article):

Your paperwork inbox doesn’t have a chance to work efficiently if you don’t feed it reliably and consistently. If you, for example, put the mail into the box on some days, yes, but leave it on the garage shelves or place it on the kitchen counter or somewhere else on other days, your paperwork inbox can’t function properly.

You can only easily and reliably find that important invoice that you need to pay today, for example, if there is definitely only one place where it could be – the paperwork inbox, the place where every piece of paper lives before you need it or decide what to do with it.

You could have a functioning (although very simplistic) paperwork-organisation system even if you decided to do nothing else with your papers (no sorting, decluttering, filing, etc.).

As long as you just stick to this one rule and consistently collect all your paperwork in that one inbox, you are in a safe place. Because you can be certain that you will always be able to find any piece of paper you need to find.

Additional rules that drastically increase the worth and efficiency of your inboxes:

RULE NUMBER 2: Regular check-ups!

Choose a regular routine (daily, weekly, monthly – whatever makes sense) for your inbox check-ups – so you always know at least broadly what’s in there.

As said above, you will survive without checking your inbox regularly, but you will feel more in control and in charge – you will feel better – if you make sure that you know what’s going on there in that box.

Regular check-ups are a necessity if you want to follow the final rule – the one that will help you to actively get things done:

RULE NUMBER 3: Regular decisions and actions!

Make decisions regularly about what to do with the stuff in the inbox – and then do it.

For example, decide which of the groceries in your fridge have become clutter – they are rotten or far over their expiration date – and must go. And then throw them in the bin immediately.

The Success Team: Rule 2 plus Rule 3

The combination of Rule Number 2 and Rule Number 3 – that’s – in my opinion – the general recipe for success – success in any area of our life:

As soon as we, after a check-up, are aware of what’s going on, we are ready to make decisions. And as soon as we have decided what to do, it gets so much easier to take action and do it.

[That’s why I created the ADA framework (Awareness – Decisions – Actions) and apply it all the time. I will talk more about it soon.]

The focus of the ‘Inbox’-article series.

I believe that inboxes are a ‘natural’ basic element of all functioning organisational systems. In all areas of life, we find places and containers that act as inboxes and keep things organised.

Here, in this article series, however, we will focus our attention and discussion on those inboxes that help us organise important areas of our daily life – our time, space, paperwork, projects, and tasks – efficiently.


The inbox for physical paperwork is the topic of the next article.

It’s super easy to install and maintain a well-functioning paperwork inbox. This inbox could be(come) the only element of your paperwork organisation – or it could be(come) the entry port to your paperwork management system.


HOW CAN I HELP YOU?

Are you tired?

Tired of trying to (re)organise the various areas of your life entirely on your own?

Tired of investing vast amounts of time and energy in finding a way to create a better organised = better life?

Tired of feeling overwhelmed, confused, frustrated, stressed, disappointed, exhausted, …?

Fortunately, you don’t have to figure it out all by yourself.

We can do it together.

You can decide to get my support, advice, and guidance – and achieve the desired changes in your life so much faster and easier. 

Check out how I can help you.

Inboxes are the most fundamental elements of a well-organised life.

What’s an inbox?

It is not possible to get properly organised without the support of inboxes. We can’t avoid clutter from building up if we don’t have inboxes or if our inboxes are not well cared for.

Okay, but what is an inbox?

Inboxes are temporary storage areas for things that need to get done/organised.

Let’s have a look at a few examples:

The email inbox is the inbox that typically comes to mind when we talk about inboxes. It’s the easiest and simplest of all inboxes: We don’t have to install/arrange it – as soon as we create an email account, we automatically get an inbox. We also don’t have to personally arrange the inflow of data and information into our inbox, it gets filled up automatically: Any message that anybody decides to send to our email address will end up in the inbox.  

The mailbox is another very common inbox. If we live in a place that has an address, we usually have a box that collects our mail. And even if we don’t have a specific mailbox, the postman will find another mail-inbox solution, for example, by slipping our mail through under the front door.

The in-tray on an office desk is another inbox that most people working in bigger organisations are familiar with. The company courier drops the interoffice mail in the box, and colleagues use it as well to leave messages and documents addressed to the person who works at that desk.

There are many, many more containers or places that we use as inboxes.

Often, they are not called ‘inboxes’ although they do the job of an inbox.

Inboxes help us organise the various areas of our life and avoid clutter.

Think about these additional examples:

Many people organise their time with the help of a physical or digital calendar – the use of a calendar allows them to collect all professional and personal appointments and events in one place.

A shopping list is an inbox. It’s the place – typically a piece of paper or a note on the phone – where all the things we need to buy come together.

The ‘gallery’ app on your phone is an inbox. It automatically collects all the photos you take with the phone’s camera.

Your to-do list – in fact, any type of list – does the job of an inbox.  The same is true for a project action plan.

The laundry basket in the bathroom is an inbox. It keeps all the dirty clothes in one place.

Let’s have a look at what all types of inboxes have in common.

What’s the job/purpose of an inbox?

    • To provide us with a default place where we can easily drop things that we can’t work on, can’t make use of at this moment – we get both hands/our head free to work on other stuff.

Example:

You take the mail out of the letterbox before you enter the house and then quickly drop it in your general paperwork inbox in your home office. Now you can forget about the mail and are free to do whatever you want to do right now.

    • To provide us with a container/place where we can temporarily collect/gather loose individual items – we can trust that we don’t lose these ‘loose’ things.

Example:

While you are preparing dinner, you use up the butter. You write ‘butter’ on your shopping list, where it stays with other to-buy items – until you take the list along on your next trip to the grocery store.

    • To provide us with a place where can reliably find things that haven’t been assigned their final destination – we know exactly where to find something that hasn’t been organised yet.

Example:

You are looking for a photo you recently took and find it easily in the ‘gallery’ app on your phone.

    • To provide us with an overview of the things that we still need to make decisions about or work on – we have all the things that must be taken care of in one place.

Example:

A quick look at your to-do list helps you remember the tasks that need to get done. Now you can decide what you want to tackle next.

    • To provide us with a place where we can sort the collected items into categories and/or according to priority – we gain an overview of groups of things to do, and we can decide what needs to be tackled first.

Example:

You empty the laundry basket and sort the dirty clothes into categories. You decide to get the shirts washed first because you want to do the ironing in the evening.

I believe that inboxes are a ‘natural’ basic element of all functioning organisational systems. In all areas of life, we find places and containers that act as inboxes.

As soon as you start thinking about inboxes, you will quickly start to see them everywhere.

What are some of the inboxes that you – consciously or unconsciously – make use of in your daily life?

Let me help you get going by giving you some personal examples from my life:

My examples:

Inbox for unread books – I have an area on our bookshelves where I (temporarily) store the books that I haven’t read yet. And on my Kindle, I have a folder called ‘To read’. So, whenever I buy a book that I don’t start reading immediately, I know where to put it. And if I’ve finished a book, I know where I can look to choose the next book I want to read.

Inbox for self-empowering thoughts – I keep a note in my note app for any useful thought I come across that I might want to practice thinking in the future. So, when I feel a bit low, I know where to go to find some positive inspiration.

Inboxes for groceries – Our fridge, freezer, and pantry are inboxes for the temporary collection and storage of certain types of groceries. Our groceries are not spread all around the house, they have an intermediary home.

Inbox for bookmarks – I keep bookmark folders on my laptop to collect interesting online articles, links, etc. One folder is called ‘Inbox’. If I am in a hurry or don’t know yet where to store something, I put it in the bookmark inbox.

Little Exercise

Pick one of the inboxes you regularly use in your daily life.

Now, have a closer look.

    • What does this inbox actually do for you?
    • Does it do its job well? Reliably?
    • What would happen if you no longer had it?

In the next article of this series about inboxes, we discuss the requirements of a well-functioning inbox.


HOW CAN I HELP YOU?

Are you tired?

Tired of trying to (re)organise the various areas of your life entirely on your own?

Tired of investing vast amounts of time and energy in finding a way to create a better organised = better life?

Tired of feeling overwhelmed, confused, frustrated, stressed, disappointed, exhausted, …?

Fortunately, you don’t have to figure it out all by yourself.

We can do it together.

You can decide to get my support, advice, and guidance – and achieve the desired changes in your life so much faster and easier. 

Check out how I can help you.

Living intentionally means that we carefully pay attention to where we put our attention.

The thoughts that we paid most attention to in the past, the ones we thought most frequently, are the thoughts that have created our current results.

The thoughts we pay most attention to today, those we are thinking most frequently right now, will create our future results.

Our attention is our most powerful resource. And we can intentionally make good use of this resource. We have the power to control where we place our attention.

At any given moment, we can pay attention to only one thing. Just one.

That’s why it is so important to intentionally decide where we want to put our attention.

Example:

If you are planning to start a big project, you need to be thinking something that allows you to get started. Something like, ‘This is a huge project. It’s doable if I divide it in smaller projects.’

However, if you focus your attention on a thought like, “This is a huge project. I can’t do that.‘, the probabily that you get it started and done is very low.

And as long as you have your attention on the second thought, the first thought has no chance. Because you can’t give it your attention while you are thinking the other thought.

You need to become aware that the second thought is getting in your way and then deliberately direct your attention to the first thought.

If you manage that well, the other thought (‘I can’t do that.’) no longer has a chance.

What are the stories and thoughts that are getting your attention, again and again?

Do you place a lot of your attention on your past by often thinking of it? And what do you focus your attention on when you think of the past? Do you mainly think about the good stuff that happened to you? Are you feeling proud and grateful? Or do you pay more attention to past events and experiences that you think were difficult, unfair, uncomfortable, heavy, etc.?

Or do you mostly direct your attention and thoughts to your future? What do you expect to happen in the future? Are you feeling excited and curious when thinking about the next stage of your life? Or are you feeling worried and anxious about what might come up?

Do you pay more attention to other people’s thoughts about you? Or do you focus on your thoughts about yourself?

Do you direct your attention to the things that are not working right now – or to those that work well?

Take a few quiet minutes from time to time to intentionally pay attention to your attention.

Remind yourself: If you don’t like where your attention currently is, you are free to decide to redirect it to where you want it to be.

My (German) mother often reminded us, “Worauf ich meine Aufmerksamkeit lenke – dahin fließt meine Lebenskraft.” In English, that’s something like “Where I direct my attention, there flows my life energy.” And it’s very true, I believe.


HOW CAN I HELP YOU?

Are you tired?

Tired of trying to (re)organise the various areas of your life entirely on your own?

Tired of investing vast amounts of time and energy in finding a way to create a better organised = better life?

Tired of feeling overwhelmed, confused, frustrated, stressed, disappointed, exhausted, …?

Fortunately, you don’t have to figure it out all by yourself.

We can do it together.

You can decide to get my support, advice, and guidance – and achieve the desired changes in your life so much faster and easier. 

Check out how I can help you.

The 2-minute rule: If it takes less than 2 minutes, just do it.

I don’t know who ‘invented’ the 2-minute rule. Maybe it was David Allen who presented it in his book ‘Getting things done’, first published in 2001.

The 2-minute rule is still very popular and most productivity gurus have it in their toolbox.

I like it because it’s so simple and clear, it’s very effective, and it can be applied to things we need to do in all areas of our lives.

The 2-minute rule is a great tool that helps us overcome procrastinating and get small tasks done immediately, whenever they come up.

The 2-minute rule says,

This means that whenever a new to-do shows up, you ask yourself whether you can do it immediately. If the action is simple and won’t take very long, the best thing to do is to take care of it right away.

If you don’t complete these simple and quick tasks right away, they can quickly build up a backlog on your to-do list.

Or, even worse, if you think these tasks are so small that it doesn’t make sense to write them down, they will take up precious space in your brain – and might distract you from working on your priority tasks.

The longer you put the small stuff off, the harder it feels to accomplish it.

Whether they end up on your physical or on your mental to-do list, uncompleted small tasks tend to pile up and can become a heavy mental burden and cause stress, guilt, or other negative feelings. Typically, the consequence is ongoing procrastination.

Whenever a new task arises, you ask yourself, ‘Can I do it now? Will it take less than 2 minutes?

If the answer is ‘no’, you put the task on your calendar or on your to-do list.

If it is ‘yes’, you complete the task immediately. And then you can forget about it.

Like any new habit, this one as well requires some practice and effort in the beginning. However, you will quickly get used to the rule because it is so easy to remember and realise.

Find suitable ways to remind yourself, again and again: ‘I do quick tasks quickly.’

You’ll soon begin to move through your day and work with more speed and efficiency. You will feel more active and productive. And you will automatically pay more attention to more quick to-dos – and get them all done automatically.

The 2-minute rule will turn into a 2-minute habit.

Yes, periods of procrastination might happen from time to time but they will become fewer. And it will be easier to overcome them – because you know you are no longer a procrastinator but a quick action taker.

The 2-minute rule is a productivity tool that we usually apply to newly incoming tasks. Whenever during the day a new task arises, we decide in that moment if we can do it quickly right now. If not, we transfer it to the calendar or to-do list.

However, if you have a huge backlog of uncompleted small tasks on your to-do list, you can decide to use whatever time you have available to reduce the amount of undone stuff. If you have 30 minutes, for example, before you need to leave the house, you can realistically tackle about 15 quick tasks.

Ideally, before you start to work on the backlog, you first group together tasks that must happen in the same context. For example, all quick stuff that must be done on the computer. Or all the little things that you want to get done in the kitchen.

It’s important to deliberately decide when you have the time to do 2-minute stuff and when you don’t have it.

If you are already late in the morning, for example, it doesn’t make sense to water the flowers even if that would take less than 2 minutes. You can’t do any 2-minute task righ now – because you need the 2 minutes to reach the bus.

However, if you are wainting for the doctor’s assistant to call you back, you can use one or two 2-minute periods to water the flowers and do other quick stuff.

Another thing to be careful about it the risk that we slip into doing numerous 2-minute tasks at a time when we actually should focus on finishing a bigger urgent project.

The rule is a tool to overcome procrastination and we don’t want to misuse it as an excuse to create additonal procrastination in our life.

Some examples:

At work:

    • The 2-minute rule can help you keep your inbox clear(er). You quickly evaluate each email: Can I get it done (read, delete, forward, answer, unsubscribe, …) right now? Will it take me less than 2 minutes? If the answer is yes, you know what to do.
    • Let’s say you start a new project and decide you need a project folder – the right time to create the folder is now. (It takes less than 2 minutes.)
    • You need to sign a document and get it back to your colleague? The best time to do it is now.
    • You notice the paper basked it full – and you get up and empty it now.
    • You decide that you won’t attend the business conference next week. And you call the travel agency to cancel the flight – right now

At home:

    • In the morning, you switch on the coffee machine – and empty the dishwasher while you are waiting for the coffee to run through.
    • After breakfast, you do the dishes – because it takes less than 2 minutes.
    • Before you leave for work, it’s a quick thing to water the plants in the living room.
    • In the evening, you clear up your home office desk. It’s a quick job.
    • Coming home, you take in the mail and directly sort out what belongs in the paper basket.
    • You open the mail – and immediately file a receipt for tax purposes.
    • You stop on your way to the backyard and quickly transfer the laundry from the washing machine to the dryer.
    • You arrange with your friends to meet for dinner on Friday and – directly after the call – make the online booking.
    • You think of your mother’s birthday – and get up to wrap the present and write the card.

The first step could be to check what’s currently on your to-do list.

Are there any items that you could get rid of rather quickly by doing them quickly? If yes, set yourself a time frame and get them done, one after the other. And enjoy the feeling of being active and productive.

Another option: Imagine a typical day and how you move through it, from morning to evening, and create a list of typical 2-minute jobs.

What are some little tasks that often show up and could be done immediately that you usually don’t do immediately?

    • Maybe, you leave the clothes from the day before on a chair in your bedroom and let them pile up until the end of the week. Would you have 2 minutes available in the morning to put them away?
    • Do you usually quickly browse through your emails, just to see what’s there? What if you decided to invest 10 minutes to get about 5 emails sorted out immediately?
    • Does it happen that you walk through the supermarket, wondering what you need to put in the trolley? What if you took 2 minutes in the morning to check the content of the fridge and write a shopping list?
    • Do you often rush out of the office in the evening, leaving a mess on your desk? Could you decide to stop working 2 minutes before you leave and use them to clear up the desk?

Make a list of the typical daily quick tasks that you often postpone.

And then experiment with doing them just when they arise (or even before they arise).


HOW CAN I HELP YOU?

Are you tired?

Tired of trying to (re)organise the various areas of your life entirely on your own?

Tired of investing vast amounts of time and energy in finding a way to create a better organised = better life?

Tired of feeling overwhelmed, confused, frustrated, stressed, disappointed, exhausted, …?

Fortunately, you don’t have to figure it out all by yourself.

We can do it together.

You can decide to get my support, advice, and guidance – and achieve the desired changes in your life so much faster and easier. 

Check out how I can help you.

3 little questions help us make use of every day – intentionally

Often, time flies by, one day quickly passes, and then the next, and the next, and suddenly the week is gone.

And if someone asked us what actually happened during the week, what we did or didn’t do, what went well and what didn’t, we struggle to remember.

That’s a pity.

We risk losing valuable memories and experiences. And we miss the opportunity to learn from our daily successes and failures.

Every evening, sit down for 5 minutes (or do it while you brush your teeth), look back at the day that’s just ended, and answer these 3 questions:

    • What worked well today?
    • What didn’t work?
    • What am I going to do differently in future?

Let’s have a look how this works in more deteail:

Question 1: What worked?

It is important to start with thinking about what worked – because that brings you to a more positive place and opens your mind to the insights that can be gained.

List everything that went well this day. Every little thing. 

Ask, and answer, for example,

    • What did I do well today?
    • Which of the actions I took were effective?
    • Which helpful toughts did I have?
    • Which positive feelings did I experience?
    • What did I do well in my encounters with others?
    • What did I do better than the day before?
    • Etc.

Question 2: What didn’t work?

Keep the list as neutral as possible, avoid negative adjectives. This is just about creating an inventory of the things (actions and thoughts) that didn’t work out, it’s not about collecting accusations.

Ask, and answer, for example,

    • Which thoughts or beliefs got into my way and kept me from doing what had to be done?
    • In which ways didn’t I show up like I wanted?
    • Did I lack certain skills or necessary knowledge?
    • What did I do that made me feel frustrated, disappointed, miserable, …?
    • Etc.

Question 3: What am I going to do differrently tomorrow?

Based on your answers to the other two questions you can now make a plan and list what you want to do differently in future.

This step is vital for our development and our future successes, but most of us don’t do it – because we are so eager to get away from the not so perfect experiences that came to mind when we answered Question 2.

Answering these questions every evening makes every day – the good days and the not-so-great days – valuable.

If we deliberately evaluate what we experienced today, we can decide to make use of our insights tomorrow.

This means that we are living (more) intentionally.


HOW CAN I HELP YOU?

Are you tired?

Tired of trying to (re)organise the various areas of your life entirely on your own?

Tired of investing vast amounts of time and energy in finding a way to create a better organised = better life?

Tired of feeling overwhelmed, confused, frustrated, stressed, disappointed, exhausted, …?

Fortunately, you don’t have to figure it out all by yourself.

We can do it together.

You can decide to get my support, advice, and guidance – and achieve the desired changes in your life so much faster and easier. 

Check out how I can help you.

Two powerful decluttering questions

If you don’t feel motivated to get your stuff sorted out and to let go of any clutter, or if you feel motivated but feel unable to decide what’s actually clutter and what’s not,

Ask yourself:

    • Who will most probably (have to) clear up my belongings after my death?
    • And what do I want them to think about my stuff – and about me?

Yes, I know, most of us don’t like to think about our mortality.

That’s why we actively avoid thinking about what is going to happen with our personal stuff and who will have to take care of it when we pass away.

Because it forces us to think about the things we own and the reasons why we own them – and how we feel about those reasons.

Take some minutes to think about the questions. Write your answers down. Have a closer look at them.

Is there anything new and/or helpful you learned about yourself, and about your stuff?

Do you feel more motivated now to start your decluttering project? More determined to make some let-go decisions?

My personal Example:

When I die, most probably my husband will have to take care of my stuff. I assume, however, that he will not be able or will not be willing to do the work. He will ask my sisters or his own sister to help him clear up my stuff.

I imagine my sisters and my sister-in-law at our place, having to go through my possessions – my clothes, my jewellery, my books, my paperwork, my digital information, etc.

In my mind, I see, like in a movie, how they open my wardrobe. I see them as they are taking out all my clothes and shoes. And having to make decisions about them. I see them while they are working through the boxes that contain my sentimental papers. And so on.

And, again and again, I ask myself: What will they think and feel about me while they are going through my stuff? Do I want them to think and feel that way?

I remember that I felt very uncomfortable the first time I thought about the questions. But I tried to answer them. And found the answers helpful.

They really helped me make progress, particularly with decluttering my paperwork. I was able to decrease the amount of paperwork, sentimental and other, by half.

I don’t do this exercise often.

But from time to time, for example, while I’m digging my way through the overcrowded drawer with my underwear, I stop and think:

Do I want anyone to see this mess? And to clear it up?

The answer is usually ‘no’.

And 10 minutes later the underwear drawer is clutterfree and nicely organised. 😊


HOW CAN I HELP YOU?

Are you tired?

Tired of trying to (re)organise the various areas of your life entirely on your own?

Tired of investing vast amounts of time and energy in finding a way to create a better organised = better life?

Tired of feeling overwhelmed, confused, frustrated, stressed, disappointed, exhausted, …?

Fortunately, you don’t have to figure it out all by yourself.

We can do it together.

You can decide to get my support, advice, and guidance – and achieve the desired changes in your life so much faster and easier. 

Check out how I can help you.

Living Intentionally – Short Introduction – Part 3

In Part 1 of this short introduction series, we defined what living intentionally means, in a broader and in a more narrow way.

In Part 2, we listed some typical life situations to get a clearer idea of what intentional living might look like in real life.

Today, I want to briefly discuss a simple framework that helps us create a more intentional life.

Living intentionally – How do we get there?

No matter what the specific intention behind a client’s decluttering or organising project is, we always use my simple 3-step process – the ‘ADA Framework’ – to realise the desired outcomes successfully.

The ADA Framework

These are the steps that my clients practice and implement to actively take control and create the life they want to live: 

A – Gaining Awareness

Gaining awareness of all the ‘stuff’ they currently have in their life – pulling it all out so that they can look at it. Getting crystal-clear on what they really need and want to have in their future life. And how they want to bridge the gap between the present and the future.

D – Making Decisions

Making decisions about the changes they want to make and the outcomes they want to achieve. Prioritising, and deciding what they want to focus on first. Choosing the strategies, projects, and actions they need to implement to realise their plans. 

A – Taking Action

Taking action to get rid of what they no longer need in their life, and to simplify and organise what they want to keep. Focusing on one project at a time, taking one action step after another. Moving forward, unstoppably.

Intentional life management – The benefits of the 3-step framework.

Practicing the 3 steps of the ADA Framework not only ensures the successful completion of my clients’ mind management, decluttering, and organising projects, but it also builds a skillset that they can use again and again for the rest of their lives.

The knowledge that we can always take the 3 steps – getting a clear head, making decisions, and getting things done – is unvaluable.

It gives peace of mind. And the confidence to intentionally and proactively design – and enjoy! – life we want.


The easiest way to see and appreciate the simplicity, efficiency, and the power of the ADA Framework is to apply it in real-life situations.


HOW CAN I HELP YOU?

Are you tired?

Tired of trying to (re)organise the various areas of your life entirely on your own?

Tired of investing vast amounts of time and energy in finding a way to create a better organised = better life?

Tired of feeling overwhelmed, confused, frustrated, stressed, disappointed, exhausted, …?

Fortunately, you don’t have to figure it out all by yourself.

We can do it together.

You can decide to get my support, advice, and guidance – and achieve the desired changes in your life so much faster and easier. 

Check out how I can help you.

Living Intentionally – Short Introduction – Part 2

Now, that we have defined what intentional living means, it’s time to consider how the concept plays out in real life.

Living intentionally – What does that look like?

Living an intentional and organised life looks different for each of us, of course.

Each of my clients has very personal and unique goals and ideas about what they want to achieve and why they want that.

Decluttering and organising physical stuff and personal information.

For some of my clients, the focus of the work is creating more space and order in their personal environment. They want to clear their home and belongings or optimise their physical paperwork and digital information management. Their intention is to enjoy more spaciousness, clarity, and lightness.

Planning, organising, and successfully realising bigger changes in life.

Others want to get well prepared for bigger changes in their life – like entering retirement or downsizing – by sorting out what belongs to the past and efficiently organising what they want to take into the future. The objective here is to feel in control of the change process and to manage it confidently and successfully.

Simplifying daily life and efficiently organising time, energy, and other resources.

Many of my clients are determined to make the organisation of their daily life easier and more enjoyable. They want to get really good at managing their work, their projects and tasks, their time more efficiently. They intend to get rid of any overwhelm or stress, to get things done and to achieve desired outcomes.

Clarifying and reorganising life after experiencing loss or other unwanted challenges.

For some of my clients it’s unexpected disruptions – like the loss of their life partner or a critical illness – that force them to adapt themselves and the various areas of their life to the new conditions. They want to gain clarity and direction and use the decluttering and reorganising work to help them cope with the unwanted changes in their life.

How can we create and enjoy an intentional and simply organised life?

It takes just three steps! >READ MORE>


What about you?

Are you living your life intentionally?

And if yes, what does that mean to you?

What does it look like in your daily life?


HOW CAN I HELP YOU?

Are you tired?

Tired of trying to (re)organise the various areas of your life entirely on your own?

Tired of investing vast amounts of time and energy in finding a way to create a better organised = better life?

Tired of feeling overwhelmed, confused, frustrated, stressed, disappointed, exhausted, …?

Fortunately, you don’t have to figure it out all by yourself.

We can do it together.

You can decide to get my support, advice, and guidance – and achieve the desired changes in your life so much faster and easier. 

Check out how I can help you.

Living Intentionally – Short Introduction – Part 1

Living intentionally – What does that mean?

Basically, living intentionally means that we deliberately decide how we want to live our life. And then we act on that.

We don’t let life just happen to us and purely react to its circumstances and challenges.

Instead, we actively define what’s important to us and how we want to experience and live our life.

We proactively make any necessary changes, even if that doesn’t feel very comfortable.

And we get ourselves well prepared for the challenges and opportunities the future might bring along.

Specifically, living intentionally means that we get good at thinking and acting intentionally. 

It means that we actively

#1 – Manage our mind

We get clear on what’s going on in our mind, what truly matters to us, what we are thinking and feeling about our current life and about the future.

We deliberately decide what we want to have in our life, and what we need to think, feel, and do to create what we want.

And then we take action and practice the new ways of thinking, feeling, and doing.

#2 – Organise our life

We let go of what belongs to the past and no longer serves us.

This refers to our daily life and to all areas of life:

Step-by-step, we declutter our home and our physical ‘stuff’, our paperwork and digital information. We also clear up our schedules, our relationships and responsibilities, our habits, and our daily routines.

We simplify and organise what we want to keep.

We apply strategies, tactics, and tools that help us do the work in a focused and efficient way. We also take care that everything we do is 100% aligned with our unique personalities and lifestyles.

We optimise how we organise our physical belongings, our paperwork and personal information, but also our ideas and interests, tasks, and projects, our dreams and goals.

Organising means that we take a close look at what we decided to keep, we sort it into categories, and then we assign a place to everything – so that we always know what we have and where we can find it when we need it.

Living an intentional and organised life looks different for each of us, of course.

Each of my clients has very personal and unique goals and ideas about what they want to achieve and why they want that. >READ MORE>


What about you?

Are you living your life intentionally?

And if yes, what does that mean to you? What does it look like in your daily life?


HOW CAN I HELP YOU?

Are you tired?

Tired of trying to (re)organise the various areas of your life entirely on your own?

Tired of investing vast amounts of time and energy in finding a way to create a better organised = better life?

Tired of feeling overwhelmed, confused, frustrated, stressed, disappointed, exhausted, …?

Fortunately, you don’t have to figure it out all by yourself.

We can do it together.

You can decide to get my support, advice, and guidance – and achieve the desired changes in your life so much faster and easier. 

Check out how I can help you.

Decluttering Tip – Let go of ‘sunk costs’

If something has no longer value for us, it’s clutter.

And it doesn’t matter how much we paid for it. 

Sometimes we hold on to something we don’t need, use, or love any longer, just because we have spent money on it.

We believe that we are obliged to continue valuing (= keeping) it because of the money we once invested into getting it.

However, money that has been spent is gone – it’s ‘sunk cost’, it’s gone as soon as we spend it.

Keeping something that no longer serves us but once cost us money means – in our mind – we still ‘own’ it and that makes us feel like we are somehow still having the money’s worth in our pocket.

But that’s not the case, of course, the money is gone.

Any unused item holds no value at all any longer: it holds no monetary value and no practical value – if we don’t use it, it’s useless, at least to us.

And then feelings of guilt tend to creep up. We look at that item, we know that the money is gone, and we know that it is useless to us, but it still sits there and stares at us – it makes us feel miserable.

However, it might be able to make someone else happy, it might have huge value for someone else, someone who needs it, who would use or love it.

As we release the item, we should also release any feelings of guilt, shame, or anger that go along with it. There is no upside in holding on to those negative emotions.

EXERCISE 1

    • Walk around your home and pick up some of the things that you haven’t used for ages. Or that you haven’t used at all.
    • Take each of the things in your hands and ask yourself: ‘Does this have still any value to me?’ Be absolutely honest!
    • Make a decision: To keep or not to keep?
    • If you decide to keep it, assign it a home, honour it by giving it the space and the use that the things you really want to have deserve.
    • If you decide not to keep it but want to sell it because you believe it has monetary value for someone else: Go out and find that person. Enjoy the money you get.
    • If you decide not to keep it and you can’t / don’t want to sell it: Donate it.
    • If you decide not to keep it, not to sell it and not do donate it (because there is definitely nobody who wants it): Say goodbye and put it in the rubbish or recycle bin.
    • And then enjoy the things you kept – because you truly need, use, or love them.

While going through the process of letting go and analysing why you bought the item, you can gain valuable insights from your sunk cost purchases.

EXERCISE 2

Asking ourselves some uncomfortable questions helps us understand the reasons behind the purchase and this new awareness will make it easier to avoid similar mistakes in the future.

You can you learn a lot about yourself from your answers to questions like these:

    • Was it an impulse buy? Did I acquire it without consideration or need? Why?
    • Did I succumb to pressure from a salesperson, my family, or friends?
    • What else could have caused me to buy it?

Any insights?

What did you learn from these exercises?

Are you more aware of the belongings that you value – because you need, use, love them?

And more aware of the things that no longer have value for you?

Any decluttering plans?

 


HOW CAN I HELP YOU?

Are you tired?

Tired of trying to (re)organise the various areas of your life entirely on your own?

Tired of investing vast amounts of time and energy in finding a way to create a better organised = better life?

Tired of feeling overwhelmed, confused, frustrated, stressed, disappointed, exhausted, …?

Fortunately, you don’t have to figure it out all by yourself.

We can do it together.

You can decide to get my support, advice, and guidance – and achieve the desired changes in your life so much faster and easier. 

Check out how I can help you.